


In Between

by SlightlyOff7



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Or whatever they call that game Cullen plays, bonding over chess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23278312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlightlyOff7/pseuds/SlightlyOff7
Summary: The Inquisitor makes a new friend.
Relationships: Inquisitor & Kieran, Male Inquisitor/Morrigan, Male Trevelyan/Morrigan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	In Between

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Toshi_Nama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toshi_Nama/gifts).



> Written for the wonderful Toshi_Nama! Slight allusions to my Inquisitor Max Trevelyan eventually being in a headcanon relationship with Morrigan, because I'm insane.

Cullen leaned back into his chair, a rueful smile on his face.  
  
“Well, it appears you’ve done it again.”   
  
Max grinned as he moved his last piece into place on the game board. “It’s alright. It just gives you something to keep striving for, Cullen.” His voice was teasing, and more than a little smug.   
  
Cullen huffed out a laugh. “Hah! More like it gives you something to rub my nose in at the next war room meeting.” He stood up and pushed his chair in, shaking his head as he went about resetting his side of the board. Max quickly did the same, moving all of the intricately carved wooden figurines back onto their starting tiles.   
  
“Well, I have to get some kind of satisfaction out of you. You make me sweat too bloody much for these games to be enjoyable,” Max chuckled as they finished their work, before extending a hand to Cullen. “A pleasure as always, Commander.”   
  
Cullen shook it with a sporting grin. “Likewise, Inquisitor.” He inclined his head at the title before striding away, making for the medical tents in the courtyard. Max relaxed in his chair as he watched the blonde man go, a hand coming up to rub at his temple and run through long brown hair in hopes of staving off the impending headache he could feel bubbling up at the base of his skull.   
  
_Ellasin…...enasalin lasa……..nuvenas…..._   
  
“He can’t figure out how you keep hiding your dragon from him.”   
  
Max turned at the sound of the youthful voice behind him. Kieran was sitting on a stone bench not far from the table Max and Cullen had just had their game at, an open book resting in the pale boy’s lap. His brown eyes bored into the Inquisitor’s green ones with that strange combination of curiosity and understanding they always held, and something that looked like mischief. Max took his hand from his head and indicated the board with it.   
  
“I presume from the way you figured out my little trick that you play, Kieran!” His tone was kind and encouraging, and despite his tender head Max’s smile was genuine. “Care to join me in a game?”   
  
Kieran’s face betrayed a moment of excitement, before his expression turned sheepish. “I don’t think Mother would like that very much. She’s told me not to bother you.”   
  
“Well, then your mother will have nothing to be cross about. You playing a game with me wouldn’t bother me at all. I’d quite enjoy it, actually.” Max gestured his hand towards the tile board and pieces. “Especially since I’m the one asking. But if you’d rather not, that’s perfectly fine too.” Kieran looked at the game before he cast his eyes down at his book and closed it.   
  
“Alright. Thank you.” He walked over to sit in the chair Cullen had just abandoned, pulling it up closer to the table so he could reach the board. Max offered him his choice of the two colors, and rotated the game when Kieran decided to use the ivory pieces Max had just been playing with. Max peered over the table at the boy, smiling as he saw his eyes darting between their toy armies, surveying the battlefield.   
  
“Thank _you_ for joining me. You have the first move,” Max offered. Kieran bit his lip as he briefly regarded his pieces, before he moved a foot soldier and the game was on. “So, Kieran, you must have been watching us play for a little while to notice my concealment tactics. Well done on that. I assume your mother taught you how to play.” Max pushed his knight forward as he spoke.   
  
“She did,” Kieran agreed, quickly moving another foot solider. The two exchanged moves as they talked. “She said it was a good way to practice mental agility.”   
  
“Well, as usual, your mother is correct. Though I doubt she needs to practice her mental agility much these days, eh?” He said the question with a sympathetic lilt and a conspiratorial look, and Kieran readily, if a bit guiltily, nodded. Max chuckled. No wonder the lad was so eager to play. “Terribly smart woman, your mother. I can see the apple didn't fall far from the tree.”   
  
“Thank you.” Kieran said it shyly, but he beamed from the compliment, and the sight made the pressure in Max’s head recede temporarily. “You’re very good too. The commander hasn’t lost so much in a long time.”   
  
Max laughed at that. “Oh, I’m sure he’s getting used to it by now. His misfortune is that I grew up with a big brother who’s the best player you’ll ever meet.” Kieran cocked his head at Max’s statement.   
  
“You lost to him every time.” Max nodded readily. He was used to the strange insights Kieran could make, or at least used enough to them to not betray any surprise. “But you never felt bad about it, even though you always tried as hard as you could. You were happy when he won.”   
  
Max let out a little hum as he moved one of his rooks across the board. “Yes, I was.”   
  
“Why was that?” The innocent curiosity in the boy’s voice made him smile again.   
  
“There was a lot of things I was better at than my brother that he always wanted to beat me in. I was glad to let him have the game.” Kieran just nodded at that, before sliding one of his knights across the tiles.   
  
“I wasn’t, by the way. Watching you and the commander.”   
  
Max looked up from scrutinizing the alignment of the two armies. “Oh?”   
  
“He always wonders about your dragon, when he loses. He worries that there’s a sword over his head that he can’t see, and if he could just find your dragon, he could maybe find it too.” Kieran said it matter of factly, like it was something he had always known. Max shook his head slightly.   
  
“You’re a very perceptive young man, Kieran, do you know that?” The boy looked up from the game briefly, a shy tilt to his face.   
  
“Well, that’s what you and mother call it, at least.” Max laughed at that. A joke! If his ears didn’t deceive him, Kieran had just tried making a joke. _I’m really getting somewhere with him._   
  
“Now now, didn’t we just agree that your mother is the one who’s correct all the time? And we both know she doesn’t say anything she doesn't think is true.” Max gave him a knowing look, and Kieran let out a quiet giggle at it.   
  
“Well she knows that’s not all it is, but you’re right.” The dark haired boy moved his dragon piece, the snarling wooden carving moving from its starting tile for the first time.   
  
Max scanned the board with a careful eye, before gingerly moving a foot soldier. “Have you ever had a chat with Cole before, Kieran? He’s perceptive too, a bit like you. You two might be interested in hearing what the other has to say.”   
  
“Oh no,” Kieran said quickly, “I’m not like him. It’s different.”   
  
“Oh?” Max’s brow crinkled inquisitively at that. “How so?”   
  
“Cole’s not enough of one or the other. He doesn’t know what he should be, so he feels….caught in between.”   
  
Max felt his eyebrows raise at Kieran’s insight. “Really? What’s he caught in between?”   
  
Kieran moved another foot soldier. “Here and there.” _Well, that’s certainly descriptive. Still, it….makes sense somehow._   
  
“So do you have any ideas on how we could help him feel less… in between, as you say?” Max was still playing the game, but his attention was fixed firmly on the conversation now. He watched Kieran think for a moment, his chin pulling up and a finger tapping on it, though his eyes stayed on the board.   
  
“I think he just needs to choose. He can choose more than he knows. He doesn’t even realize why he chooses to look like that.”   
  
“Huh.” Max truly had no idea what to think of that, but it sounded profound, so he filed it away for later all the same. But he was still interested in the other part of the question. “So how is it different for you? You don’t feel caught in between, I take it.”   
  
“No,” Kieran started slowly, looking like he was searching for the right words, “it’s more like...I have someone helping me. Like they give me advice about things, without me needing to ask for it.” He looked back up at Max as he spoke, and Max caught a flash of apprehension in Kieran’s gaze. It occurred to him then that Morrigan had probably told the boy not to discuss his intuitions like this, for admittedly good reasons. But as it so happened, what Kieran described was actually the least strange thing Max had heard him say yet. _Poor kid._   
  
“I know what that’s like, as a matter of fact.” Max pressed his hand into his cheek, trying to massage his sinuses and release some of the tension in his head. Kieran looked at the gesture and then gave him a sad look.   
  
“Oh, you would, wouldn’t you?” 

_Din elvhen…...lethalas……..ma’sula e’var……._ _  
_ _  
_ “Yeah, I do.” Max sighed as he moved another piece, absentmindedly rubbing at his head. A cool breeze swirled through the garden, and Max closed his eyes and tried to let it carry away the voices.   
  
“You’ll get better at it. Mother thinks you’re improving,” Kieran said with the same surety he did everything else. The statement made Max perk up.   
  
“Really? Your mother thinks I’m making progress?” Kieran nodded, and Max chuckled quietly. “She does an excellent job of not letting on. She seems more frustrated with me after every session.”   
  
Kieran smiled at that, eyes alight with humor. “You frustrate her for a lot of reasons. But she still likes you. That frustrates her too.” Max grinned widely. He wasn’t expecting an answer like that in the slightest, and it honestly made his day. _Thank the Maker for you and your perception, Kieran_ . _So I frustrate Morrigan in the_ **_good_ ** _way? Interesting._   
  
“Why are you letting me win?” The sudden question pulled him out of his thoughts, and his cheer turned to chagrin as he realized Kieran had caught on to his ploy. The boy was looking at him now with confusion, and a tiny bit of indignation. His hand went from his temple to scratching at the back of his neck.   
  
“Aha, well. You’ve found me out. Honestly I should have expected that.” Max smiled as apologetically as he could. “Just trying to be polite. I asked you into the game, I didn’t think it’d be fair of me to hit you with everything I have the first time we play.”

  
“But if you let me win, how will I ever know if I can do it on my own?”   
  
Max couldn’t help but smile at that. He could remember saying those exact words to both his father and his brother, probably a hundred times over. “You know, you’re right, Kieran. I didn’t mean to cheat you. I’m sorry.”   
  
“It’s fine!” Kieran grinned happily back at him, and Max was glad to discern that he seemed much more proud to have caught the Inquisitor in his dive than upset that Max had tried. “Would it be alright to go back and do it again?”   
  
“Well, I’d be fine with starting the game over, if that’s alright with you.” Max started to reach for the pieces that Kieran had removed from the board. “Short of that, I’m afraid I don’t really remember where I started packing it in.”   
  
“That’s okay, I do!” Kieran said quickly. Max’s hand paused. “It was five turns ago, when you moved your rook. That was the first move that didn’t make sense.”   
  
Max let out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief as he started retracing his steps on the tile. “Not far from the tree _at all._ ” The pair began resetting their pieces, and were just finishing rewinding their game when a familiar voice called out to them.   
  
“Kieran.” Morrigan’s voice was neutral as she walked up to the table, but her hands came to rest on her hips as she regarded her son. “You recall what we discussed about distracting the Inquisitor, do you not?” Kieran, slightly crestfallen, had just opened his mouth to respond when the Inquisitor beat him to it.   
  
“He does, actually! Kieran here told me all about it. And I told him he wouldn’t be distracting me in the slightest, since I was the one who asked him to play.” Max did his best to look apologetic, but he couldn’t help the mischief he always seemed to have in his tone whenever he spoke to Kieran’s mother. “So please, don’t be angry at him. He was merely humoring me.”   
  
Morrigan’s expression stayed impassive, but the way she crossed her arms was the only tell Max needed to know that he had all of her ire now. “Luckily for both of you, I am not angry. Merely concerned about the amount of work we all have ahead of us. Speaking of which,” Morrigan turned back to Kieran, “mine is done for the day, which means it is time for your studies. Go and get your supplies ready.”   
  
“Yes, Mother,” Kieran replied immediately, a small smile on his face at escaping Morrigan’s wrath. He stood up from the table and collected his book from the bench, before turning back to Max briefly. “Thank you for playing the game with me, Inquisitor. I had fun.” The genuine smile on the boy’s face made Max feel warm inside, and he replied in kind.   
  
“Thank _you_ for playing with me, Kieran. I so enjoyed myself, and next time, I solemnly promise to show you no mercy.” That got a genuine snort of laughter from the young man, and he walked back to the castle still giggling. Max watched him go with a brief, fond glance, before he turned back to the dark haired mage standing next to him. She was still following Kieran with her gaze, and when she faced Max, it was with a strange expression on her face that he couldn’t place. Her next words brought them back into familiar territory, however.   
  
“So the Inquisitor truly has nothing better to do than play with children in the middle of day?” Her face was back to its usual impassive glare, so familiar to Max at this point that he thought he could likely trace it in his sleep. Of course, if Morrigan ever knew he’d so thoroughly committed the lines of her face to memory, he’d never get the chance.   
  
“That’s the benefit of being the man with the glowing hand. I can set my own hours.” Morrigan rolled her eyes at that, but Max continued. “I was just in the middle of taking a break from all the papers on my desk. You start to go mad if you stare at parchment for too much of the day. Everyone needs a break.” Max waggled his eyebrows at her. “Even genius young boys.”   
  
Morrigan’s hands went back to her hips. “I can assure you, I am perfectly aware of the limits of human attention. Kieran is far from overworked.”   
  
“I have no doubt, my lady. I merely wanted to help make him feel at home. So many unfamiliar people in Skyhold, most of them too busy to give you the time of day. But I apologize if I overstepped my bounds.” Morrigan sighed at the genuine contrition in Max’s voice, casting her eyes around the greenery of the courtyard.   
  
“Worry not, Inquisitor. I am not upset at my son getting to enjoy a game.”   
  
“Good!” Max exclaimed. “Then if you wouldn’t mind, I’m afraid I owe your son another one. I was attempting to patronize him with an unearned victory, and Kieran sniffed me out. If you’re amenable to it, I’d love to know a time he’s free enough to play again.” Morrigan gave him another look, and Max truly didn’t have the slightest clue what she was thinking until he saw the corners of her lips turn up, ever so slightly.   
  
“Well, in the unlikely event you have the time to spare for it, he’ll be free most of tomorrow afternoon. I have reports to send back to Orlais. You can give him his satisfaction then.” Morrigan favored him with a rare smile as she spoke, a small one, but a gift nonetheless. It vanished like the morning dew a moment later. “And I can expect you later tonight for our session, yes?”   
  
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. You know I so love trying to understand a bunch of crazy whispers in my head being spoken in a dead language no one knows completely.” As ever, Max’s sarcasm made no dent in Morrigan’s expression, and he thought back to Kieran’s comment about his mother’s frustrations. _So much for your poker face, my lady,_ he thought. _Your own flesh and blood has given you away._   
  
“Very good. I shall see you this evening then.” Morrigan made to follow her son back into the castle, but she paused briefly, that strange expression back on her face as she looked at Max again. “And...thank you for humoring Kieran. I was glad to see him so content.”   
  
Max put a hand over his heart. “My honest and immense pleasure, my lady.” He fixed Morrigan with a genuine smile of his own, and though her expression stayed neutral as she turned away, Max could _just_ make out the corners of her lips turning up again. _Oh Kieran, I’m just going to have to find a better way of letting you win, now aren’t I?_


End file.
